Matt Firor has been in the MMO business since 2001, the days of Dark Age of Camelot, and ran The Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios until 2025. Firor resigned in response to the cancellation of in-development MMO Blackbird and the mass layoffs that followed.
Firor still plays The Elder Scrolls Online in secret, he told MinnMax in a wide-ranging interview, but his current obsession appears to be Crimson Desert—not an MMO, but certainly designed like one.
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For Pearl Abyss, though, it was almost accidental. Crimson Desert was originally conceived of as a prequel to MMO Black Desert Online, and it was going to be another MMO. It then underwent a slew of changes during development—contributing to a pretty haphazard feel—which included a pivot to pure singleplayer. The ghost of the MMO it was going to be is still very much present, though.
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